State of the Birds >

Woodlands

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Woodland habitats include closed-canopy forests (deciduous, coniferous, and mixed) and more open habitats with trees (pine and oak savannas and pinyon-juniper forests). About a third of the continental United States is covered by woodlands, down 30 percent from pre-European times; most losses have been in the East. Woodlands are at risk of unsustainable logging, plantation forestry, overgrazing by deer or livestock, new tree diseases, invasive species, conversion to agriculture, too-frequent or too-scarce fire, resource extraction, urbanization, and fragmentation by roads and utility lines.

Figure 1. Of the 164 woodland bird species, 120 are green species, 28 are yellow WatchList, and 16 are red WatchList.

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Figure 2. According to the Breeding Bird Survey data from 1966 to 2003, 76 of 164 woodland species are declining, and there is no trend information for 68 species.

Pine Siskin
While this finch is still common at many backyard feeders, its numbers have dropped by more than half, to about 22 million birds.

Wood Thrush
Today Wood Thrushes, known for their beautiful song, number 14 million—about half as many as there were 40 years ago.

Cerulean Warbler
Threatened by mountaintop mining in Appalachian forests, this bird has seen its population—about 560,000—drop to less than a quarter of what it was.

Additional Yellow WatchList species in woodland habitats:
Blue Grouse

Montezuma Quail

White-crowned Pigeon

Band-tailed Pigeon

Flammulate
d Owl

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Elf Owl

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Calliope Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Lewis's Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker

White-headed
Woodpecker

Gilded Flicker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Thick-billed Kingbird

Pinyon Jay

Yellow-billed Magpie

Oak Titmouse

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Hermit Warbler

Grace's Warbler

Bay-breasted Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler

Kentucky Warbler

Canada Warbler

Red-faced Warbler

Additional Red WatchList species in woodland habitats:
Thick-billed Parrot

Red-crowned Parrot

Spotted Owl

Nuttall's Woodpecker

Arizona Woodpecker

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Ivory
-billed Woodpecker

Bicknell's Thrush

Bachman's Warbler

Colima Warbler

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Kirtland's Warbler

Swainson's Warbler

Bachman's Sparrow

Audubon's
Oriole